Re: Informix left standing

David Williams <djw@smooth1.demon.co.uk> wrote: :>Success of version 6.x? From what I heard, many people left version 6 :>to return to version 5 because 6.x was so buggy. And version 7.x was : True, but remember it was a full engine rewrite... People's expectations about databases are much different than word processors. They expect 100% reliability, because their data is locked into that database. I realize it was a full rewrite, but that is no excuse for buggy software. PC's can get away with because users are used to having to reboot several times a day, but with 100 people using a single database, no amount of downtime is acceptable. :>buggy for perhaps 18 months after release, slower, crashing and choking :>on simple queries. And I think version 5 is still faster on single-cpu : No really, it was usually things like joins to remote tables or : tables in another database, and parallel queries that had problems. : Simple queries in one database tended to be ok. Not in my experience. We never used the remote table or parallel query features. I will admit the queries joined several tables with multiple restrictions, but I expect the system an SQL system to handle that. :>machines that 7.x. Remember the NewEra failure to catch on, no 4GL : 7.x is faster than 5 even on single CPU machines. CPU is rarely : a bottleneck on database servers, usually disk I/O is the problem. I was being kind. It is my belief that Informix version 5 is faster machines with one or even TWO cpus. Haven't used 7.2 long enough to know. I am sure they will finally get 7.x faster than 5.x, but it is taking quite some time for it to happen. :>language enhancements, and the non-port of 4GL to NT. :> :>So UDS, or whatever they are calling it today, is not the first problem :>Informix has had. Since version 5, it looks like things have pretty :>much headed south for them. :> :>It is not that I don't like Informix, because I do, but historical :>perspective shows they have not really hit any home runs lately. :> : I'd say 7.x I now a home run.... Maybe, but they have certainly limped around the bases to get to home plate. How long ago did they leave version 5.x? The time playing with version 6.x, and pretending it was a finished product, counts in the time table for the version 7.x home run. -- Bruce Momjian | 830 Blythe Avenue root@candle.pha.pa.us | Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania 19026 + If your life is a hard drive, | (610) 353-9879(w) + Christ can be your backup. | (610) 853-3000(h)